Chapter 3 - Kratistos
Neoptolemos and his retinue joined up with the army at Taras before returning to Epirus. The veterans were glad to return home and spend time with their families whom they had not seen in a long time. The army was paraded in triumph through the streets of Ambrakia in front of cheering crowds. The city had undergone a dramatic transformation since the conquest by Epirus. It had grown from a minor city to a massive metropolis, the most populous in all of Greece. People from all over the known world traveled to Ambrakia for learning, trade, or politics. Spices, gems, and many other goods flowed in and out of the city’s natural harbor. After the parade Neoptolemos gave the men in his army the chance to retire in honor after training their replacements. Several thousand of the 30,000 or so men agreed and were granted a small plot of land somewhere in the Epirote kingdom to live out their days as a gentlemen farmers. New armies were raised. Many men eagerly joined, nearly drunk on tales of glory and treasures. Neoptolemos’s sons Alexandros and Aiakides were given armies of approximately 20,000 men each to command. His bastard son Olympiodoros was also granted command of a similar sized army, alongside the reliable Lysias Gelid.
The Basileus openly declared the remaining Diadochi his rivals and sent them each a letter that was arrogant and bordering on dangerous. The letter declared that per the agreement at Triparadisus in 321 BCE, the Diadochi were not kings but merely generals looking after Alexander the Great’s empire until a suitable heir came of age. The original partition called for Alexander’s lackwit half-brother Phillip III Arrhidaos and son Alexander IV to assume the throne with Antipater, father of Kassandros, to serve as regent until the young Alexander came of age. Phillip and Alexander IV died in the endless wars of the Diadochi so Neoptolemos Aiakid, nephew of Alexander the Great, Grandson of Phillip II and Olympias, Basileus of Epirus and Lord of the West, claimed he was the rightful successor to lead Alexander’s great empire. As the Basileus of this sprawling empire he commanded the generals to cede control of their territories to him and they would be pardoned. Each of the Diadochi read this letter in silence but rejected the terms in disgust. Neoptolemos had not expected any to accept but sent the letter to announce his intentions to re-unify the empire, knowing its contents would rapidly spread amongst the Hellenic world. The Basileus hoped he would be seen as the natural successor to Alexander due to kinship. Outside of Neoptolemos and his immediate family there were no known people who had the blood of the Argeads.
Epirus had become the strongest power in the Hellenic world with armies totaling nearly 130,000 well-trained men. Most of the men came from Italia and Sicily but many journeyed from all over the Hellenic world. They had grown up with the legends of Alexander and his conquests and hoped to achieve the same with this new Alexander. Perhaps if the Diadochi had formed a grand alliance and invaded Epirus they may have prevailed. However, their endless squabbling, machinations, and treachery continued even with this grave new threat. Lysimachos and Antigonos dissolved their alliance. For what trivial reason this partnership unraveled we will never know but the enemies turned friends were once again rivals. Ptolemy had conquered kingdoms to his south and ruled a sprawling and wealthy kingdom. He still desired Syria and Cyprus but was content for the time being. Seleukos was killed by the Parthians in a raid while he was touring the northern reaches of his kingdom. His successor Antiochus began a war with Antigonos in an attempt to expand west.
Epirus invaded various Greek cities along the Peloponnesian peninsula while Antigonus’s attentions were to the East. Minor factions such as Elis, Messenia, and Argos were swiftly overtaken. Conquests had become simple for the mighty Aiakid war machine. Even the once-mighty Spartans were easily brushed aside. Their hour had come and gone and the Spartans were forced to flee to Rhodos, an island granted to them years ago as a reward for serving Antigonos. Neoptolemos continued his invasion southwards and toppled the existing government of Crete and appointed a puppet ruler. This strategic island would serve as a launching point for invasions anywhere in the eastern Mediterranean. The Basileus also recruited many Cretan archers to join his army, drastically improving their ranged capabilities.
During this time Neoptolemos began to devise a plan to retake Alexander’s body from Egypt. He shared it with no one. When Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BCE, there was a great debate over how to handle his burial. For centuries Argead kings were buried at Aigai. During his life Alexander had wished to be buried near Siwa, Egypt, where he once consulted an oracle regarding his heritage. The reigning regent Perdikkas decided to send Alexander’s body back to Macedon in an elaborate procession. Perdikkas was outmaneuvered by Ptolemy who either bribed the procession leader or simply overpowered them and took Alexander’s body away back to Egypt. In Macedonian tradition burying the deceased king was seen as a sign of legitimacy for the successor. Ptolemy had no interest in ruling over Alexander’s entire empire but sought the remains of his old friend to bolster his own legitimacy. This brazen move was one of the main factors for Perdikkas’s ill-fated invasion of Egypt and demise. Perdikkas was arguably Alexander’s closest follower after the king’s best friend Hephaiston had died. Many originally saw Perdikkas as the natural successor of Alexander to manage the empire until Alexander IV came of age. Unfortunately in those times the favor of the dead Macedonian king meant little and Perdikkas quickly became a footnote in Alexander's funeral games.